ALEX SMITH: Yeah, I had no idea what happened at the time, no idea what was going on. Obviously, heard about it, saw the stuff after, late last night. It’s kind of been blown out of proportion a little bit. It was an emotional game, hard-fought game, came down to the end, to the last play and both coaches were fired up. There was a little incident.

Q: Disappointing to have incident overshadow the team’s victory?

ALEX SMITH: No. No, not at all. That’s not what I was thinking about at all. No. If anything, this team loves and appreciates the fact that our coach is fiery and a competitor. We like that. I don’t think any of us hold that against him for what happened.

Q: Was it an emotional game, with a lot of talking going on?

ALEX SMITH: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it was a physical game, a lot of talking going on on both sides. Hard-fought game. So, that all played into it.

Q: The fact it was a big game play into the aftermath?

ALEX SMITH: Yeah, for sure. No question. They were 5-0, (we were) 4-1 going into the game. Absolutely, that played into it.

Q: Where does this victory place you guys in the big picture?

ALEX SMITH: You’re right, we don’t think about that. For sure, we look at the challenge of we’re going to go play an undefeated team at their place. It had been a long time since they lost a home game. A lot of things set up against us. We were traveling on the road, it was a three-hour time change again, crowd noise, obviously, the penalties we had to overcome. Two turnovers. A lot we had to overcome to win that game, yet we found a way in the end. We looked at that as the challenge. Where it puts us in the big picture, I’m not worried about that. It was the next step for us, as they all are. They all continue to get bigger and bigger as the weeks go on. I really felt like it was a challenge for us to go there and take that next step.

Q: You were throwing high early on, what was going on there?

ALEX SMITH: I think a couple of them… there were a few, for different reasons. A couple, yeah, I think just missed balls.
I think a couple all of a sudden, that type of game, where… I was determined at some points I wasn’t going to take a sack. I wasn’t going to take an unnecessary sack.
So me getting rid of the ball and over a receiver, near a receiver and an incompletion is better than taking a sack and risking something like that.
But no question a couple of them for sure, just missed throws. Have to be more accurate. A couple of times.

Q: Were you not setting your feet?

ALEX SMITH: Yeah, you know what? I think for sure, to answer it, yeah. I think when I’m decisive with my feet and eyes, as I look back at the film, I’m throwing accurate balls. The couple of times when my eyes and feet aren’t as decisive and my feet aren’t as good, that’s when you see more inaccuracy, no question.

Q: What are you doing this week?

ALEX SMITH: I think early on this week, it’s get some work in. I think this is a time—the bye week—to really look at what I can be doing, what we could be doing better. Things I need to improve on moving forward. I think it’s all a race to get better and for myself, certainly not where I want to be and what are the next things I need to do to continue to get there. And then obviously I think you get a little time away, let the body and your mind kind of get a little break, get a jump start on Clevleand.

Q: (Plane overhead—question about Raiders and 49ers both playing well)…

ALEX SMITH: I don’t know, I guess I’m not paying attention too much. I mean, I follow the NFL and see what a lot of the teams do. But I think we’re more focused on what we’re doing on this side of the Bay. Not really I guess too in tuned to what’s going on over there.

Q: But do you realize what it means to fans?

ALEX SMITH: Oh yeah, for sure. I guess I can remember, don’t know if it was last year or two years ago, we played the Raiders and yeah, it was… the lead in was, yeah, us playing each other and obviously the football wasn’t that great.

Q: How worrisome were all the penalties?

ALEX SMITH: I forget. I don’t know what the exact—what was it, 15 for like 120 or something like that. You’re not going to win many games when you do that. Fortunately we were able to overcome it. But consistently week in and week out you’re not going to win a lot of games making those kinds of mistakes. Got to get it fixed.